Compliance with regulations

Egay Uy .

THE Regulatory and Complaints Board is the local body that is tasked to enforce laws and ordinances that regulate movie houses, theaters, and other places of amusement, e.g., videoke and karaoke joints, internet cafes, cockpits, bars, watering holes, massage clinics (and spas), and other places of amusement.

The RCB conducts regular monitoring of regulated entities to determine their compliance, or lack of it, with regulations, and require those that come short or are found to be non-compliant to institute corrective measures before the penal provisions of applicable city ordinances are enforced to the letter.

The RCB is a creation of the codified ordinance of 1994.  Its officers and members serve for a term of one year only, and each year, the city mayor constitutes the new composition of the board through an executive order.

The board is composed of regulatory offices of the local government unit, and some other offices of the national government.  This year’s board has for its membership the NBI, the City Prosecutor’s Office, the Human Rights Commission, the Cocpo, the Mindanao Commission on Women, the Oro Youth, Interfaith and the academe (Xavier University Social Development Office), aside from the regulatory offices of the city government.

It is chaired by this writer and co-chaired by last year’s chairperson, Atty. Beda Joy Elot.  Councilor Romy Calizo of the City Council sits as vice chairman while Councilors Jay Roa Pascual and Suzette M. Daba sit as members.

Issues and concerns that are brought before the RCB are therefore discussed from a multi-sectoral point of view not just that of the local government unit.  It therefore sees issues also from the point of view of most, if not all, stakeholders.

The RCB is not anti-business but it is proegulation. Businesses thrive not only because of patronage of its clientele but also because of their compliance with regulations. Businesses that continue to be defiant and refuse to comply with regulation will therefore face sanctions that could lead to the imposition of fine, imprisonment or closure of the business.

For example, massage clinic attendants are required to “submit themselves to weekly routine physical examination x x x otherwise, if found to be suffering from venereal or any communicable diseases, they shall be suspended from engaging in hygienic and aesthetic massage occupation, their health certificate to be withheld in the meantime, until they shall be fully recovered.”

This legal provision does not distinguish in which business establishments these masseurs and masseuses are employed. Since they are engaged in a regulated occupation, compliance with the law becomes a must. The RCB or the City Health Office cannot be selective because as of this writing, there is no valid classification that will justify the exemption of one group of massage attendants from the required weekly physical examination.

Another example would be internet cafes. Unless the operators install blocking programs that prevent uncontrolled access to pornographic sites by minors, they would face sanctions under the existing regulatory ordinances, that could mean the imposition of fines, imprisonment, or closure of the business.

To avoid putting the business at the risk of being closed for non-compliance with regulations, it is always best to comply with existing laws and ordinances until the same will have been modified or amended.